What is Flash?

Adobe Flash (formerly SmartSketch FutureSplash, FutureSplash Animator and Macromedia Flash) is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and cartoon serials. Flash manipulates vector and raster graphics to provide animation of text, drawings, and still images. It supports bidirectional streaming of audio and video, and it can capture user input via mouse, keyboard, microphone, and camera.

Why do I need Flash?

There are lots of applications and websites that won't work unless you have Flash installed, and more are created every day. Flash is fast, secure, and reliable. From laptops over cell phones to the Internet, Flash is everywhere. You need flash to see the web as it is, without Flash the web would still be text+logos. It brought real animation to a place that was very monotone.

Why should I have the latest version?

The latest Flash version contains important enhancements to improve performance, stability and security of the Flash applications that run on your machine. Installing the latest version will ensure that your Flash applications continue to run safely and efficiently. If your computer is somewhat older and Flash takes all system resources, an update may improve the performance of Flash. Keep also in mind that running older versions of any software, and especially software like Flash, is a security risk.
You should regularly update Flash for avoid bad things like getting hacked, computer crashes, instability, performance slowdown, etc.

Where to get Flash

You can download the latest version of Flash and Shockwave for your computer at the official website:

Privacy & Flash

When using proxies (IP:Port proxies or Webproxies), your real IP can be revealed by Flash. This means, every website that uses Flash can identify you online. You can test this @ IP-score.com.
To avoid this, you can disable Flash either in your browser's settings (in case you're using IP:Port proxies).
Or disable Flash in the settings of your webproxy (*[http://www.hidemyass.com/proxy/ @ "Advanced option")

The same goes for Java, Silverlight, Windows Media Player and several other plugins/add-ons. They all might reveal your real identity. The reason for this is that a usual proxy works only within your browser; but plugins and add-ons work like independent applications, so your proxy may get ignored by them.

Note: This can happen only with webproxies and IP:Port proxies. When using HMA's Pro VPN service, your real IP will be safe in these cases.